Proper punctuation

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That's the spirit! I also have a spelling knack, but a lousy memory in general (even before SSRIs...)

What if Shakespeare's wife was like that?????

...Hey, is this a funny coincidence? At the bottom of my page, this ad appeared:
"An Asperger Dictionary of Everyday Expressions
Addressing an important aspect of social communication for people with Asperger Syndrome, who use direct, precise language and 'take things literally', this dictionary of..."

Last edited by tomart on 25 May 2007, 10:18 pm, edited 3 times in total.

See, that's my view on rules: they change, so just relax; what's the diff? Language IS just an exchange of symbols, after all, n'est-ce pas? Was it 'proper' to use both colon and semi in my 1st sentence? I don't really care, since I found out the best writers break the rules when it suits them, and that's how languages change. If they didn't, we'd all be speaking Latin.

Cogito, ergo doleo (I think, therefore I am depressed)

Last edited by tomart on 25 May 2007, 10:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That is the best latin phrase ever!

Hehe. You'd have a helluva time debating that with that Skrunk guy. I think that was his name. Anyhow, T.S. Elliot had this guy as an English professor (if I'm not mistaken) and actually compiled all of his rules of grammatical etiquette into a short book. Was actually pretty interesting to read. Shame I can't follow. I put 'em where I feel like they belong. Screw the system, LOL. Happy to read you like to revolt also.

ty (thank you!)
Aio, exercitorem linguae Latinae proprium habeo. (Yes, I have a personal Latin trainer.) Volo ut syntaxis mea splendescat in litore, veniente aestate. (I want to get my syntax into shape for the beach this summer.) [Really, they're from a book - shh! don't tell anyone!]


Viva la revolucion! (Someone correct my Spanish spelling, please)

I think that's cool as hell insofar as you taking Latin. I mean, it's the root of practically all European languages including our own. Suffixes, prefixes, just about everything and anything. All harking back to that practically extinct language. But that's sorta the hangup I'd have over taking Latin. It's not very practical anymore. I suffered two years of Spanish in high school and about all I have to show for it is the ability to say the pledge of allegiance and "Aye carumba! Es muy caliente in la casa!" Linguistics seem to be a strong point for many Aspies. Just not myself. I was often complimented for intonation when speaking it though. Obviously you're holding onto your studies quite well, however.

I don't care how well a person spells words or punctuates as long as I can tell they took time with their post. That definitely happens a lot here, which I'm thankful for.

Technically no, actually. English is a Germanic languages, and does not descend from Latin. The Romance languages are the descendents of Latin. However, due to the Norman invasion of England, a lot of Romance loanwords ended up in English, which is why you can find so many Latin roots. Actually, the only languages descended from Latin are: Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Provencal, Romansch, Romanian, Spanish and Galician. Germanic, Celtic, Hellenic, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Baltic, and Armenian languages are related to Romance languages only through the mother of them all, Proto-Indo-European (that is, the mother of them all except for Basque, which may not be an Indo-European language).

Sorry for the nitpicking- I was a linguistics major!

Except that languages evolve through speech, not through writing. Writers may introduce new vocabulary, but they are not going to change the syntax or pronunciation in any significant way, which are the true sources of fundamental language change. Anyway, whether a writer uses a semi-colon or not in their writing is not going to have any effect on the language itself.

I try to keep it tidy, but I'm no longer militant about it, and after reading a shelf of linguistics-oriented essays - of which I recommend S. I. Hayakawa's "Language in Action" - ; I don't to a full extent believe in The One True Way anymore.

No, no! Not at all unhappy to be corrected. You've perked my interest. Though I never had a great interest in studying linguistics, I always was one to wish I had fluency another language.

I would have been prepared to challenge you with how and why there are as many Latin roots in our language to not be a descendant. You wrapped that up nicely for me. Anyhow, I'm curious enough to research a bit on what you say. Thanks.

People here are cool!
It's always lovely to find humans who are capable of spelling words in their own native language, although English makes little actual sense to me.

I am usually very pedantic about this kind of thing - read any of my posts . I use all punctuative characters whenever possible, and words generally have to be EXACTLY correct because I am almost literally incapable of substituting them for "lesser" words. Mild slang is acceptable, but only when genuine and spelled properly. This is also the case when I'm speaking. Makes it even more difficult to carry on a conversation when I'm trying to get across a complex point to someone and my mind is blanking and I can't remember normal words, let alone whatever rare lexical gem I've determined to excavate from the murky recessed caveats of my deepest mind. I love long, colourful sentences like that, they're like an advanced form of poetic art or something.

Also, even when I get everything right, it often turns out that the words don't actually mean what I think they do, which is weird.

Boy, do I identify with that at times, when typing or writing.

I suspect I sound like a complete airhead 90% of the time when I speak aloud though.

Since last year in particular I've developed an intense fixation towards what I write; the key being not repeating the same word within close proximity of each other. There are some exceptions but more often than not, when I do notice this, I'm annoyed with myself and edit the wording.

I won't claim to be a great writer though, not at all; quite often I'm not sure if the placement of a semi-colon is correct or not.

While I can drive myself insane with this fickleness, by and large I enjoy writing how I do.

I do it because I want people to understand what I am saying, not because I give a sh!t about grammer. Grammer geeks bore me to death. Im a history geek.

I'm a big-time punctuation nerd, right up there with Lynne Truss. It's contagious, too -- my wife the Supermodel becomes more of a punctuation stickler every year!